Recommended Posts

Crypto exchange Buda has told its users that they can experiment with Lightning Network (LN), a second layer scaling protocol that guarantees instant payments on the Bitcoin network.

As one of Chile’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Buda has a large user base and hopes that bringing LN on Buda.com will help its users make Bitcoin payments “at the speed of light.”

Make Bitcoin Payments via Lightning Network

In an August blog post, Buda told its users that they would soon find it possible to “make purchases in the supermarket with Bitcoin, using a new technology called Lightning Network.”

On October 12, the company published another blog post, announcing that its users could now use funds in their wallets to pay for goods utilizing the new technology.

According to the exchange, all a user needs to do is to go to a vendor that accepts Lightning Network payments and get an invoice. The user then connects to the exchange’s website and uploads the invoice before proceeding to make the payment.

According to the blog post, a user needs to ascertain their payment details:

“If everything is ok with the details of your purchase, press the ‘Pay’ button, and in moments you will receive a confirmation with the result of your payment.”

The platform has assured its customers that the system will be secure, with only the Bitcoin (BTC) used in the transaction being deducted from their balances. Users can review their LN payment history in the recent list of Bitcoin withdrawals.

What can users buy using LN?

Buda acknowledges that Lightning Network is still in the experimental stage, and its use is still limited. However, to give its users a glimpse of the many possibilities, the startup lists some services accessible via the technology.

According to the firm, users can take advantage of Lightning to purchase prepaid cards or game vouchers on Bitrefill; pay for hosting services on Bitlaunch; use LNSMS to sent text messages “to any cellphone in the world,” and go to CoinMall to purchase games, books or art.

Other websites like Yalls allows users to use Lightning to pay for and read crypto articles, while Satoshi’s Place makes it possible for users to participate in ‘collaborative drawing’ by spending a minimum of 1 satoshi for every pixel.

Buda’s decision follows similar “experimental” moves by a host of other companies seeking to find out the feasibility of the network.

For instance, crypto-to-gold exchange Vaultoro became the first to announce that it would accept Lightning Network deposits. The exchange said at the time that it would limit the deposits to just 100 satoshis, citing the fact that the technology was still in development.

CoinGate, a Bitcoin payment processing company has also been accepting LN payments via a number of merchant services, including Chronoswiss, Mmoga.com, Louis Chevrolet, Bitlaunch, and Livejasmin among others.

Buda.com’s bold move follows positive developments for the crypto exchange industry in Chile after the country’s anti-monopoly court ordered major banks to re-open all bank accounts operated by cryptocurrency exchanges.